


Agoraphobia

by El Staplador (elstaplador)



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-11-11
Packaged: 2017-11-18 10:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elstaplador/pseuds/El%20Staplador
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodan is beginning to regret leaving the Citadel with Leela. Leela gives her a reason not to...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Agoraphobia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [agapi42](https://archiveofourown.org/users/agapi42/gifts).



> Written for the dw_femslash 2012 exchange.

The desert. Six hours out from the Citadel, and the chilly wind blew straight across the face of the bluff, raising the dust and cutting through Rodan's cloak. Her robes did nothing to blunt its edge. It seemed to her almost like a sentient enemy, rising up to block her path, mocking her, reminding her that bad things happened to little children who went outside the Citadel.

Beside her, Leela strode infuriatingly easily, matching her own pace without apparently thinking about it, not so much as shivering in the knife-edge wind.

'Can we stop, just for a moment?' Rodan asked once more, knowing that the answer would still be, 'It's not safe here.'

'Another hour, perhaps, and we shall be safe,' Leela said. 'They can still see us from here; but you are right: sooner or later we must find somewhere to spend the night.'

Rodan's feet were blistered and aching; her boots, designed for the smooth surfaces of the Citadel, had long ago proved themselves unequal to the deserts of outer Gallifrey. Sharp little stones found their way in at the toes, worked their way up under the arch, and stuck, digging in painfully, at the heel.

'I wish I'd never come,' she muttered. She almost meant it. Oh, it was a thrill to be outside the Citadel, to be free, and it was weirdly pleasing to think that she was doing her duty to Gallifrey by abandoning her post, but all her romantic notions were wearing thin in the face of sheer, brutal, reality. How long, she wondered wearily, how much further could it be to safety? Or, if not to safety, to rest?

  


Another hour, or more, or less, and the Gallifreyans found them, and she was too exhausted to do more than protest half-heartedly and eat and drink what they gave her, and let Leela's belligerent plans wash over her, and stagger to the tent they showed her...

  


She woke as if into a dream. The air was heavy with silence, no familiar hum from the night generator, no comforting murmur from the scanner, no lights gently blinking in the gloom. Her hearts beat faster in momentary panic, then slowed as she returned to full consciousness and the knowledge of safety. The darkness of the heavy tent; the paler patch of sky just visible through the air vent. The weight of furs. The chill nipping at the end of her nose. Her own breath rising in a cloud.

There was Leela sitting, cross-legged, straight-backed and alert, with her knife unsheathed across her lap, just a pale glint in the darkness.

Rodan shifted uncomfortably on the cold ground; the heavy fur cover slid off her and she wrenched it back. ‘What’s the time?’ she mumbled.  

‘A little while until daylight,’ Leela said, without taking her eyes from the door of the tent.  

‘What’s the matter? Are we not safe here?’ Rodan would not have been surprised; the sense of the thinness of the tent and the vastness of empty space beyond it, was oppressive. Anything could be out there.

'Oh, this is just habit. It is as well to be cautious, even when one is among friends. I have slept, a little.' Then, ‘Are you cold?’  

‘A little, when I put a hand outside the blanket. Aren’t you?’  

‘I am accustomed to it. It keeps me from falling asleep.’  

‘Mm.’ Rodan yawned. ‘I could sleep for weeks more… I’m not used to all this fresh air.’  

‘You had never been outside the city?’

‘Never; one doesn’t need to.’

'You never wanted to?'

Rodan laughed, drowsily. 'Let's just say that it's not encouraged, and until yesterday I never had good reason.'

'And yesterday?'

'Yesterday, a good reason turned up.' She sat up. 'No, let me be honest. Two things happened: firstly, it became evident that my continued presence as a glorified space traffic controller was doing nothing to prevent the invasion of my home planet by hostile forces. Secondly, someone offered me an alternative – someone interesting enough to leave my post for even under ordinary circumstances.'

'You said you knew you would like me,' Leela said.

'I was right. Even if you did make me walk for hours without stopping, and after our water had run out.'

Leela did not apologise, but then Rodan had not expected her to. 'It was a pity that we had to leave in such a hurry. We could have been better prepared. But you are recovered this morning?'

'My legs ache, and I don't even want to look at my feet.'

'Let me.' Leela sheathed her knife and stood up with graceful strength, almost as if she had not been sitting stock-still for several hours, and knelt beside her.

Wincing, she bent her knees, pulling them up towards her chest to wriggle free of the crude sleeping bag. 'Oof, I'm stiff.'

'Your countrymen have made a good job of your feet,' Leela said with approval. 'They ought to heal quickly, and you will be able to walk today without pain.'

'I hope so; they don't feel like it at the moment,' Rodan grumbled. 'And your hands are cold. Come under the covers and warm up.'

Leela made as if to protest, but seemed to think better of it. 'Mm - you are warm.'

'You're not. And if _I_ say that, as a Gallifreyan, you know you're cold. Everyone knows that aliens are hot-blooded. Here – lie down.' Rodan pulled the blankets back up over the pair of them.

They lay in companionable silence for a little while, until Rodan said, 'Do you think me stupid?'

'Stupid? No, of course not.'

'Well, foolish, then. Coming away without preparation, and without knowing the territory. Holding you up.'

Leela raised herself on one elbow. 'I think you are very brave,' she said.

'Oh no, not brave. Just bored and curious.' On impulse, she pulled Leela down toward her and kissed her. She responded eagerly enough, nestling down into Rodan's arms with a happy 'mm!', and returning the kiss.

'Bored and curious?' Leela murmured. 'I think you are harsh to yourself, but it seems as good a reason as any.'

'Certainly a good reason to do things I've never done before...' She trailed a hand up Leela's thigh.

'You had never kissed a... an alien?'

'I - as a matter of fact I've never kissed anybody.'

In the lightening darkness, Rodan could just about make out Leela's raised eyebrow.

'I've often wanted to, though,' she protested, hurriedly. 'I just... well, here you are, coming along, giving me ideas...'

Leela laughed and pulled gently at the ties that fastened Rodan's shift. 'I believe you had the ideas already. I don't think they're all my fault...'

'Perhaps not,' Rodan admitted, and gasped as Leela's fingers slid, tantalisingly lightly, down her back. 'But you see, Timelords don't do this sort of thing, and nor do people who might be Timelords one day – at least – mm! - not until they're important enough Timelords – _oh!_ \- for everyone else to pretend it isn't happening – oh, yes, that's lovely – and never before their first regeneration - and I know that up until yesterday I wasn't the sort of person who'd leave my post either, let alone the citadel, but – _oh!_ '

'Hush,' Leela said, tracing the line of her cheek with one finger.

And the desert was not so lonely, then.


End file.
